Warmer weather means ice cream in the park. Van Leeuwen returns to USQ as the seasonal vendor for another great summer near the subway entrance at the west side of the park near 16th St. With rotating ice cream (including vegan) flavors, expect sweet treats in the Square.
7:00 AM Morning Running Club with Paragon Sports (Fitness)
7:00 AM Boot Camp with Circuit of Change (Fitness)
8:00 AM Yoga with Jivamukti (Fitness)
9:00 AM CrossFit with Paragon Sports (Fitness)
10:00 AM Yoga StoryTime with Karma Kids (Kids)
11:00 AM Rolie Polie Guacamole (Kids)
12:00 PM New School Jazz (Music)
6:00 PM Salsa with Baila Society (Dance)
Join The New School’s Fabio Parasecoli for New York City’s first college pop-up class will at Union Square’s Greenmarket on Wednesday, April 20 at 11 a.m.
A world-travelled food and culture expert, Fabio leads The New School’s Food Studies program, which examines the cultural, political, and economic significance of how and why we eat.
With the Greenmarket as his classroom, Professor Parasecoli will conduct a unique cultural, historical, and environmental lesson in food – with the farmers as participating experts – as collective thoughts turn to spring produce, Easter dinners and Passover recipes.
At the end of the pop-up class, he’ll offer up a Greenmarket recipe and answer questions. The class starts by the statue of Gandhi at the south-west corner of Union Square–look for The New School signs!
Looking west on 13th St. at the corner of 5th Ave., 1915
Brit chain Pret A Manger had moved into the former Tisserie space at 857 Broadway (at 17th Street), and now comes official word that when it opens for a test run this Friday, it will give away 3,000 free sandwiches starting at 12:15 p.m. — provided you snag one of the flyers that will be given away at the Union Square subway entrances between 8 a.m. and 9:25 a.m. that morning. Pret is calling this the “Guinea Pig Day” for what will be their U.S. flagship (the store features a fresh design and free Wi-Fi), but for better or worse, cuy won’t be served — instead, Pret is sourcing food directly from Greenmarket vendors. The location opens fully on June 22.
Hersha Hospitality Trust, owner of upscale and select service hotels in major metropolitan markets, announced that the Company has entered into a purchase and sale agreement to acquire the 175-room Hyatt Union Square hotel in New York City at 4th Ave and 13th Street for total consideration of $104.1 million, or approximately $595,000 per key. The transaction is expected to close shortly after the seller completes the hotel’s construction. The consideration to the seller consists of $36 million paid to the seller in cash, the cancellation by the Company of a $10 million development loan made to the seller, accrued interest on the loan and the assumption by the Company of two mortgage loans secured by the hotel in the original aggregate principal amount of $55 million. While this purchase and sale agreement secures the Company’s right to acquire the completed hotel, the Company is not assuming any construction risk, including the risk of schedule and cost overruns. The hotel is expected to open in 2012.
Comfort food joint Chat ‘n Chew shut its doors this week after 22 years in the neighborhood, but the owner plans to reopen it as an Italian restaurant.
The diner-style eatery at 10 E. 16th St. near Fifth Avenue will relaunch in two weeks as Little Sal’s, said Ethan Silverman, son of owner Andrew Silverman.
“[Chat ‘n Chew] lost some of it’s energy, and now we’re getting it back,” Ethan Silverman said. “It’s going to be a Chat ‘n Chew on steroids. It’ll have traditional Italian food like chicken parm, eggplant parm and pastas.”
Silverman compared the concept of Little Sal’s to New York City restaurants like Sauce and Parm, where it’s “casual and family oriented — selling wine by the glass and not the bottle,” he said.
Andrew Silverman also co-owns Flatiron’s City Crab and Barbounia restaurants.
Little Sal’s will open as a pop-up in two weeks for a test run, and may remain open permanently depending on how well it does, Silverman said.
As for Chat ‘n Chew’s abrupt closure, Silverman said the team had known that they would be closing for a while, but hadn’t made it public.
“If people took a look at the place recently, they’d see that the staff was slowly kind of diminishing,” Silverman said.
“We’ve been in Union Square for a while, and we’re going to come back with energy,” he continued. “But [the concept] will be [in] keeping with the people who work and live in the neighborhood.”